this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 249 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Misleading title: SIEMENS Mobility is looking for said Windows 3.11 admin. NOT the German Railway

[–] [email protected] 105 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Deutsche Bahn is the circus and Siemens in this case the clowns.

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 9 months ago (15 children)

Legacy hardware and operating systems are battle tested, having been extensively probed and patched during their heyday. The same can be said for software written for these platforms – they have been refined to the point that they can execute their intended tasks without incident. If it is ain't broke, don't fix it. One could also argue that dated platforms are less likely to be targeted by modern cybercriminals. Learning the ins and outs of a legacy system does not make sense when there are so few targets still using them. A hacker would be far better off to master something newer that millions of systems still use.

Tell me you know nothing about cybersecurity without telling me you know nothing about cybersecurity. Wtf is this drivel?

[–] [email protected] 85 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Simple solution: Don't connect it to the Internet. Hackers hate this one weird trick.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago (4 children)

And said trick ends when an attacker manages to socially-engineer their way in. (But maybe they’ll drop floppies instead of flash drives around the block this time)

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (6 children)

You really think that infrastructure IT is dumb unless it can brush off a Stuxnet-like attack by the CIA and Mosad? Most RR traffic signals in the US are run with mechanical logic, physical switches connected to circuits closed by steel wheels on steel tracks. Do you really want a "move fast and break things" tech bro to update all this stuff for us?

All kinds of infrastructure uses ancient software because it's reliable. Updating it just to protect from hackers causing damage is likely to cause that damage unintentionally while doing little to protect from hackers anyhow.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It really depends if these systems (that appear to control arrival boards) are on a network or not. If they're not, then there is minimal risk to leave them the way they are. Somebody would need physical access to the devices to do harm. If they are on a network then that's a pretty big deal, but some attacks could be mitigated against by tunnelling and/or additional packet filtering to ensure the integrity of messages.

Continuing on a railway theme you should be FAR more worried all the devices that run up and down the side of railway lines - PLCs that talk with each other and operations centres to control things like lights, junctions, crossings etc. If they're more than 5 years old then chances are then all that traffic is in the clear, and because these things live in boxes by the railway line, it wouldn't take much to break into a network and potentially kill people by running two trains into each other.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (5 children)

the job was advertised as being remote.....

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

they can execute their intended tasks without incident

Now if only the Deutsche Bahn could do that too

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Ooh, someone is about to make BANK!

[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Some retired old fart who can't be bothered to learn fancy-schmancy Web 2.0. Rock on like it's '93

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Or a middle-aged fart who did learn new stuff but remembers the old stuff too

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They're gonna party like it's 1989

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Imagine both the annoyance and job security having to manage MS-DOS and 3.1 systems for a railroad would entail.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I would love it so much. I’d feel right at home. I miss sitting in my room and learning everything I could about DOS. That was the best time I ever had with computers.

I once built, setup, and maintained about 20 computers for a Christian school for free just because I loved doing it so much.

I wish I still had that enthusiasm for tech.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Frankly that's nothing. In the worst case a train won't start, which for DB really isn't something unusual. It's far more disturbing how the whole global financial market sometimes rely on code that's still written in COBOL.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 9 months ago (11 children)

We're maintaining and developing OpenVMS OS, and both we and our customers need Cobol, Fortran, and other half-dead languages coders.
Many large companies maintain their old systems and use them for production or data processing purposes. Sometimes it's too expensive to migrate off, but im many cases "it just works"

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

Isn't pretty much all airport scheduling based off software from the 80s or something?

Edit: Found a video about it.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

And in many cases if it gets replaced it's for a system that looks fancier but actually has more problems than the original... See Phoenix for the Canadian government employees pay.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You mean I can use my decades of Fortran knowledge somewhere?! If I could get a wfh position in about 3 years, that'd be awesome.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If you actually do have decades of fortran experience, work for NOAA. Their weather models are mostly fortran and they need engineers. Specifically the NOAA EPIC contract that i worked on previously definitely needs people knowledgeable in fortran and was 100% work from home. Feel free to DM me if you want more details.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've seen those postings and some executive is living in dreamland thinking they can hire someone to do that for $25/hr.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (3 children)

My bosses tried to ask me if I knew anyone the could hire for a full time position at a hospital. I ask for more details and eventually they relent because they aren't having any luck on indeed/craigslist/temp recruiter.

It's a 24 hour on call position for 'up to' $55,000 to be the sole IT staff for a 100 bed hospital in upstate NY.

I literally laughed at them, but they seem to insist they are gonna find someone to take the job.

I actually think the job isn't even legal as described.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Hahahaha, what a joke.

Sorry, not interested in 24hr on call until they start talking $100k+. That's asking a lot of someone.

Sounds like they need multiple staff, actually. You can't do on-call without having a rotation. What happens if Bob gets hit by a bus? This tells me all I need to know about them. Typical SMB "leadership", they lack any concept of managing systems - be it IT, finance, mechanical, whatever. All systems have their management models.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

Fucking delusional pricks.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Do I get to move to Germany for this?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You might, actually. Provided there is no available EU applicant.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

There are probably many people in Japan with this skillset given that they're only now getting off disks for certain government processes.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Better hope those systems are not network enabled

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (7 children)

They’re probably still running on their own Netware network. Is there still Win16 compatible malware going around?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

10/10 would install Doom on it.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Migrating to FreeDOS might be feasible for them.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

At least it's not windows 8.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Remote? Do you connect yourself over telnet or what?

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Not gonna lie, part of me wants to relive the SoundBlaster and DOS extenders era and watch stuff with QuickTime. Tinkering with config.sys and autoexec.bat was quite fun back then.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Was it really FUN or is it not just nostalgia? I would not reaaaally want to fiddle with the autostart-crap again. It often took soooo long. Even with those auto-optimizers...

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Thats the reason, why they have Problems to find drivers (If you know, what i mean) 😜

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

Why use MS-DOS? Why don't we just re-write it in Rust?

Edit: I should have mentioned /s in my comment. It's never a good idea to rewrite a mission-critical software.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Sign me up if you're paying $300k+

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I know a guy fitted for the job. He's well versed in MS-DOS, Win 3.1, 3.11 etc. Hell, he's even fluent in German, but he's due a hip and knee replacement this month...

That's all I'm gonna say.

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